5 years ago, I looked crazystupid naive when I mentioned the idea, that in the future (which is now), telco’s will be selling disconnection as much as connection, access restriction as much full access.

Similarly, when I spoke at ITU last year on data privacy in World Telecom in Bangkok, I mentioned the fact that selling privacy and secured data access, I remember people being really surprised in the audience. Then, later during the event, I was happy to see fellow future-thinker (Swiss too) Gerd Leonard mentioned the exact same concept when he addressed the crowd of operators and regulators telling them “telcos are in the trust business”. You can view the full keynote here.

Logically, in the space of personal data, especially with lifelogin and quantified self data, trust is not an option, it must should be a central piece of the product offering. This is way I’ve loved the concept of Pryv from the very start, in the field of QS meta platforms to aggregate your various data. Contained in the name (Pryv, as in private) , but also in their DNA (they’re Swiss, and as such love secrecy), their concept is really right and fair, proposed in a rich user interface.

Now to the business, I just discovered the business of Respect Networks, dubbed as “the leading platform for secure, verified and mutually agreed sharing of personal data”. This is just a start of new business, where people will pay for trust.